


Ready to Ask-Ready to Tell

by sans_souci2



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-22
Updated: 2011-07-22
Packaged: 2017-10-21 15:40:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/226813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sans_souci2/pseuds/sans_souci2
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Post Po'ipu-Danny decides to ask Steve to level with him after being scared out of his mind–again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ready to Ask-Ready to Tell

“Okay, so how many?” Danny holds the door open for Steve and watches to see just how carefully he lowers himself into the car.

"Stitches?”

“No, nurses giving you the f-me eye. Yes you moron, stitches."

"Why do you care?" Steve flinches, when he turns to ask.

"Why? Because Kono and I have a little bet going. I say you hit a hundred by June," He eases the car into the late night traffic on Lauhala. "She's going with sixty."

“You’re shitting me?”

“Am not. So, how many?”

“Ten deep–thirty superficial."

It’s hard not to wince when he hears that this time Steve needed to be stitched up in layers. “Ten deep, really? That's got to fucking hurt.” After he gets one of Steve's classic shrugs, he’s had it, “Would you, just for once, tell me the damn truth!”

“I am. Really. It doesn't hurt.”

Fuck if he doesn’t look like it’s true.

“Not until the local wears off. Come on; let’s get your beat to hell ass home.”

______~______

 

Danny’s been in Steve’s kitchen enough to feel comfortable helping himself which is what he does as soon they're inside and have flipped on a few lights. “So you want a beer – wait, did take any pain med?”

“No- and yes- a beer.”

“A beer, please.  Manners, Steven.” He pops open two, grabs two more for back up and nods toward the backdoor, “al fresco drinking?”

“Sounds good to me.”

They're too exhausted to think about any food to go with the beer and drop down into the weathered beach chairs like tired old men. After a long draw on their bottles, they sit without talking, letting the sounds of the surf wash over them and melt a little of the night's tension. There’s one light on, the one next to the back door; its soft glow barely reaches them. With only a half moon and sprinkling of stars they’re pretty much sitting and drinking in the dark, which is more than okay with Danny. He remembers flying out here just a few hours ago and thinking for a minute that the figure at the water's edge was Taylor, which meant the body floating in the surf was Steve. After the way his heart felt for that unbearable second he's determined to get some answers and darkness will do just fine for that little exercise. “So you remember when you said I was Jealous of Nick?”

“Yeah, what about it.”

“Well I could be all wrong but I get this weird vibe that maybe you and that ass hole really did have something more than all those CIA, SAD, alphabet soup adventures between you.

Steve huffs at the alphabet soup line, tips back his beer bottle, and says nothing. Danny can’t see him, but knows his eyes are narrowing as he stares out into the black night. When he does answer his voice is a soft husk "There’s more than one question in there Danny.”

“Yeah I guess there is.”

“And you’re sure you’re ready to hear the answer?”

“Pretty sure.”

“Well, I’m not so sure I’m ready to give it.”

“It sounds like …  maybe you just did?”

After a long silence, “Maybe I did.”

“So how serious were you two?”

“We were together for about a year–not living together, but … , you know."

He didn't know diddly but he nodded like he did, wiping his palms on his thighs and looking straight ahead.

"Then we both just kind of went our separate ways, no hard feelings, just moved on."

“And then after Nick ...  came Catherine?” If fucking question marks lit up over Danny’s head whenever his confusion level hit the roof they would be going off like fireworks right now.

“Catherine and I aren’t a couple, Danny. We enjoy each other’s company; we meet certain … needs for each other, but it’s not the same as it was with Nick and I.”

“So what just happened tonight – with Nick … that had to be hard as hell?”

“Yes and no. The Nick I was close to would never have taken out a federal agent or staged an assignation attempt on a foreign dignitary. I’m sad that he got so damn screwed up but not sad about what I did.”

“Well that’s a relief, now I can continue to hate the cheese ball without feeling guilty.” Steve gave one of his breathy snorts and Danny sensed he was looking at him. A sideways glance confirmed it.  Jesus. Even in the dark his eyes bored straight through him.

“So what about you, Danny?”

“What about me, what?”

“You know.”

His face burned and his chest felt like there was a 300-pound weight pressing down on it. “No I don’t.”

“Have you ever been in a relationship like that?”

“Like that? No… but, I … I’ve been having–I mean, I’ve, oh fuck. What the hell am I saying?”

“So far, nothing very coherent.”

“Well that's because you're playing mind tricks on me or something. Christ, Steve. You make me feel things I never have before.”

“Like wanting to strangle me?”

He could barely whisper it, "And do a lot of other things."

“Any chance you want to see where those feelings take you?”

“Are you offering to be my tour guide?”

Shrugging, “Well I am pretty good at recon.”

“And fucking modest too”

“Seriously Danny.”

There’s no way his heart can beat this fast for much longer, “If you’re asking … what I think you’re asking –”

“You know what I’m asking.”

“I …  guess the answer is yes–as insane as it is, yes. But you have to realize this is the first–I mean my first–oh shit, you know.”

Steve reaches over and squeezes his arm, “I do know, and I’m honored.” Then, cat-like, as if there’s no knife wound in his arm, he slides out of his chair and drops down on the armrest of Danny’s leaning in and pulling him close. "And I've been wanting to do this for way too long,” The kiss he gives him is a complicated masterpiece–starting out gentle and tentative then going all Rambo and bad ass on him until Danny's moaning and gasping for air and can just barely grit out, “Fuck.”

“Not yet,” Steve warns, “we’re going to take this nice and slow.”

“Why do I suspect your body doesn’t even have that speed?”

“I don't know. Maybe, because there's so much you still don’t know about my body.”

"I am so screwed."

“No detective, you are _soon_ to be so screwed."

 

 


End file.
